About
Unseen California is an interdisciplinary arts research initiative founded in 2021 by Karolina Karlic, Associate Professor of Art at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and co-founded with Joseph Gallegos, Associate Professor of Film at California State University, Los Angeles. Under Karlic’s direction as Founding Director, Unseen California brings contemporary artists into sustained, place-based research at UC Nature sites across California.
Working through artist research cohorts, Unseen California creates opportunities for extended field research and exchange with the landscapes, histories, ecologies, communities, and ongoing research connected to each site. The initiative supports the development of new artworks while creating opportunities for field-based arts teaching and learning, interdisciplinary exchange, exhibitions, publications, public programs, and other forms of research dissemination.
The inaugural artist cohort launched in 2021 with Mercedes Dorame, Dionne Lee, Tarrah Krajnak, Aspen Mays, and Karolina Karlic. Over two years of field research, the artists developed distinct bodies of work responding to California landscapes and histories through their individual practices and perspectives. This research has since circulated through exhibitions, publications, institutional collections, and public programs, extending the work beyond the field sites where it began.
At its core, Unseen California considers artistic research as a form of sustained inquiry: spending time with place, building relationships, observing change, and developing new ways of seeing and understanding California’s complex and changing landscapes.
2024-2026 Artist Cohort
Artist Researcher: Shao-Feng Hsu, Lecturer University of California, Santa Cruz
Artist Researcher: Lacey Lennon, Associate Professor California State University, Long Beach
2021-2023 Inaugural Artist Cohort
Lead Artist Researcher: Karolina Karlic, Associate Professor University of California, Santa Cruz
Artist Researcher: Mercedes Dorame, Assistant Professor California Institute of the Arts
Artist Researcher: Dionne Lee, Assistant Professor Ohio State University
Artist Researcher: Tarrah Krajnak, Associate Professor University of California, Los Angeles
Artist Researcher: Aspen Mays, Professor California College of the Arts
Advisory Board Members
Joseph Gallegos - Media Research Advisor
Aspen Mays - Arts Field Research Advisor
Mercedes Dorame - Arts Advisor and Indigenous Cultural Consultant
Jennifer Parker - Art + Science Collaborations Arts Advisor
Shana Lopes Assistant Curator of Photography at SFMoMA - Contributing Author
Gage Dayton Ph.D. (Administrative Director of NR & Coordinator of Field Studies at UCSC) - UC Nature Advisor
Rachel Berger - Graphic Designer
Sponsors & Affiliations
Norris Center for Natural History
Institute of Arts and Sciences
Unseen California is supported by the Kenneth S. Norris Center for Natural History, the Arts Research Institute, UCSC’s OpenLab, the University of California Placemaking Initiative and the University of California Climate Action Arts Network supported by the University of California Office of the President.